Advancement

The not-quite-dark night looked dreamlike beneath the glow of the sea of flowers.

The flower fairies swarmed and danced beneath the air-conditioning vent of the bird-nest dwelling. Shawa Shawa earnestly taught Du Ke the flower fairy language while happily chatting with him. Perhaps because every creature that entered this sea of flowers was either a fierce predator or a docile herbivore, leaving them with few to communicate with, Shawa Shawa was especially friendly toward Du Ke.

"Is advancement your way of growing, or a way of cultivation?"

"I don't know."

"When did you advance? Did you advance once you reached a certain age?"

"No. I advanced in my second summer. Many flower fairies still haven't advanced after ten summers."

"Can you continue advancing?"

"Um..." Shawa Shawa thought seriously before answering uncertainly, "I don't know, but I have a feeling that I'll advance again one day. When I advanced before, I was about the same size as Borg Borg and the others. Now I'm bigger than them, and I'll become even bigger. Would that count as advancing?" Shawa Shawa asked Du Ke instead.

"That definitely counts as advancement. By the way, how long do you live?"

"I don't know, but Xise Xise knows." Shawa Shawa called Xise Xise over, who was still riding the Displacer Beast Spirit. "How long do flower fairies live?"

The Displacer Beast Spirit was remarkable, even displaying humanlike movements. The spirit stuck out its tongue and licked Xise Xise, then crawled into the blue reeds. It no longer had the ferocity it possessed while alive, instead giving off a sacred feeling. Xise Xise flew to the window, folded her arms, and rapidly spoke a sentence in the flower fairy language. Du Ke could not understand, so Shawa Shawa had to repeat it for him.

"She says she has already lived through twelve summers and twelve winters. She has seen many flower fairies who could only live ten summers. She also says that before me, the old leader of the Sea of Flowers Tribe lived for thirty summers."

Du Ke suddenly understood. "I see. In other words, ordinary flower fairies live for ten years, while advanced flower fairies can live as long as thirty."

At that moment, Xise Xise rapidly spoke another sentence in the flower fairy language. Shawa Shawa translated for her, "She says I'm not a leader yet. The old leader was twice her size, and had a crown made of petals on her head. She knew three spells... Um, I only know two spells."

After thinking for a moment, Du Ke came to a conclusion.

Shawa Shawa was likely in the midst of her second advancement.

The flower fairies' growth system was as follows: ordinary flower fairies possessed Purification Magic by default and were roughly the size of a palm; after their first advancement, their flower stamens transformed into magic wands, granting them a second Nature Magic spell, and they grew to around one and a half palms tall; after their second advancement, their petals transformed into crowns, granting them a third spell, and they grew to around three palms tall. There was also a transitional stage of advancement, which was Shawa Shawa's current state, at around two palms tall.

"Help me ask her what spells the old leader knew."

"The old leader knew Purification Magic, Nature Growth, and Thorn Tentacle... Thorn Tentacle can make a thorny vine grow from the ground. It can whip around really fiercely. Even enormous beasts can be tied up and killed when they charge over." Xise Xise gestured animatedly, her tiny eyes filled with admiration. Clearly, that old leader had been a very charismatic flower fairy.

Du Ke was about to ask more about the old leader when he suddenly raised his head toward the sky.

The stars had vanished, replaced by another moon that had appeared in the sky at some unknown time. Judging by its position, the previous moon was high overhead, while this one was in the eastern sky. He could not help being surprised and immediately asked Shawa Shawa, "Are there two moons here?"

Shawa Shawa looked up at the sky and answered as though it were perfectly normal, "Sometimes there's one moon, sometimes there are four. Most of the time there are two. The most I've ever seen was six moons. The night was as bright as day."

"Six moons!"

Du Ke was shocked at first, then smiled as understanding dawned on him. Since Fantasy World had two suns, why could it not have six moons? It merely had a few more satellites. He remembered reading a popular science article saying that Saturn had eighty-three satellites, and there might be even more undiscovered satellites in Saturn's rings. Jupiter also had seventy-nine satellites, and there might be more that had yet to be discovered.

"Are all those moons big?"

"No. These two are the biggest. The smallest are about the same size as stars."

"I see..." Du Ke felt that Fantasy World might not truly have six satellites. The moons as small as stars might be other planets in this star system. For instance, Venus could be clearly seen from Earth; the Morning Star and the Evening Star were both Venus, sometimes appearing in the morning and sometimes at dusk. "I'll have to observe them before I can say for sure."

As he spoke, he manifested an astronomical telescope and began observing the moons in the sky.

The moon high overhead soon appeared in the lens. It had no atmosphere, allowing him to see its surface directly. It was pitted and full of craters, much like astronomical photographs of the Moon. The winter moon was somewhat different. Du Ke discovered that this celestial body was actually yellow, its surface marked by varying shades of yellow. Of course, it also had craters and undulating mountain ranges.

"Hmm, I wonder what that yellow stuff is. Could it be gold veins?" Du Ke shook his head and dismissed the astronomical telescope. He was not an astronomer; even after seeing what the two moons looked like, he could not make much sense of it.

And so it went.

By the time it was past midnight, the flower fairies were still full of energy, but Du Ke was starting to feel sleepy.

He gestured for the flower fairies to do as they pleased, then lay down on the bed to sleep.

He also told Shawa Shawa, "Warn me if there's danger."

Shawa Shawa nodded in agreement.

With a group of innocent, lively flower fairies keeping him company, Du Ke could finally sleep soundly that night without worrying about magical beasts from Fantasy World launching a surprise attack. Still, although he was exhausted, he could not fall asleep immediately after lying down. Too many thoughts churned through his mind—flower fairies were humanoid creatures, so were the Mushroom People living in mushrooms also humanoid creatures?

There were flower fairies and Mushroom People. Could there be even more intelligent creatures?

Had these creatures perhaps already developed highly advanced civilizations?

This was a magical Fantasy World. If it also contained highly advanced civilizations, then the native "humans" would surely be extremely powerful. Even with the Mind Armor to rely on, he still seemed insignificant.

Especially after seeing the battle between the Behemoth and the Stegosaurus Lizard, he became even more certain that this world was dangerous.

A five-meter-tall Behemoth and a ten-meter-long Stegosaurus Lizard—if either one sat down on him, even without magic, the Titanium Alloy Nano Armor would probably be flattened. If there were even stronger magical beasts, Du Ke truly could not imagine how he could fight them. To put it bluntly, he was merely a Lucky One who had obtained a cheat ability. He himself possessed neither earth-shaking talent nor grand ambition.

Going with the flow, shuttling back and forth between two worlds, and making a fortune was his original intention.

He did not want to lose his life.

"Fantasy World may be wonderful, but Earth is still better. At least on Earth, I don't have to worry about staying alive... I wonder whether the paper I published in the Journal of Chemical Physics caused a sensation, and whether the paper I submitted to Physical Review B was accepted." With these chaotic thoughts, accompanied by the dancing and frolicking flower fairies, he soon fell into a deep sleep.